Seven people died in the EF-4 tornado that ripped through Millbury and Lake Township on June 5, 2010.
MILLBURY, Ohio — Fifteen years ago, on June 5, 2010, Edward H. Blank and his wife, Julie, were hosting a birthday party for their son, Casey. The sun had set on what began as a calm June evening with overcast skies, mild weather and kids laughing in the backyard pool.
“We had like 35 kids here for a party that night,” Julie recalled. “They had all been here swimming, and they all went home except for his best friend, who was staying the night.”
Edward said the day felt uneventful.
“It was really kind of a calm day,” he said. He had even spent part of it playing in a golf outing.
But as night fell, weather alerts started coming in. Julie and the kids headed to the basement. Edward lingered upstairs, sitting on the front porch with a beer until he heard something that made his heart stop.
“It sounded like a locomotive coming at us,” he said. “I waited for the train whistles, and there were none. I looked up and saw two tornadoes.”
He raced inside just in time. One twist of fate spared a life.
“Casey’s best friend was in the restroom,” Edward said. “He opened the door right when I came down the hallway. Had he not done that, I wouldn’t have known he was in there.”
Everyone inside the Blank home survived. But the house itself was gone.
“Holy crap, the house is gone,” Edward said.
Debris from their home was found scattered throughout the woods behind their property and beyond. A credit card was later recovered in Marblehead, roughly 40 miles away.
While material things could be replaced, the tornado claimed the lives of three of their next-door neighbors: Hayden, Mary and Ryan Walters.
“I struggled for a long time with survivor’s guilt,” Julie said. “Why was I spared and that little boy wasn’t?”
The Blanks have since rebuilt. Life has moved forward, but the memories remain.
Sometimes, it’s the sound of a distant train. Sometimes, it’s the silence that follows.
But for the Blank family, June 5 will always be more than a date on the calendar. It’s the night everything changed.
This article was published by Steve Iwanek on 2025-06-05 22:47:00
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